The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) NT$30 million (US$966,651) for its failure to solve the problems of its “Envision Project” information techonolgy system, the highest-ever fine levied in a single case.
The system has caused problems with about 152,000 policies sold by the company, Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華) told a news conference in New Taipei City, with some policies automatically being suspended or halted.
Nan Shan Life has contacted about 150,000 affected policyholders and has promised the commission that it would compensate its clients as soon as possible, Shih said.
Even so, the commission has barred the company from selling any new investment-linked policy (ILP) products until it has fixed the problems and has passed an examination by an independent third party, Shih said.
The net value of the investments linked to Nan Shan Life’s ILP products was NT$180.9 billion as of the end of June, she said.
The penalty needed to be severe enough for the company to improve the system and bring its customer service levels back to normal, she added.
In addition, the commission suspended Nan Shan Life chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) from being chairman or a board member of the company for two years and banned him from receiving any salary or benefits during the period.
Du, who has been chairman since Aug. 13, 2015, was responsible for introducing the Envision Project after he commissioned German software company SAP SE to install the NT$4.7 billion system in 2014 when he served as deputy chairman, the commission said.
However, Du failed to supervise, get external opinions or reassess the risks of the project, which led to the budget ballooning to NT$10.1 billion, the commission said.
Nan Shan also did not conduct parallel testing before launching the Envision Project in September last year, which was one of the reasons the company failed to identify and fix the glitches, the commission added.
The commission also demanded that the insurer cut the salary of a former chief auditor surnamed Yang (楊) by 30 percent and barred him from acting as chief auditor for the next three years.
The company must submit a plan to improve the system and and timetable for fixing all the existing problems, Shih said.
Nan Shan Life said in a statement that it would respect the commission’s decisions and would fix the system as soon as possible.
The commission also fined Nan Shan Insurance Co Ltd (南山產險) NT$6 million for its failure to assess the risk of implementing the new system.
The fine is much smaller than that handed to Nan Shan Life as the problems did not adversely affect the company’s policyholders, the commission said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS